Trump’s lawyers ask to halt hush money sentencing
6 January 2025, 15:54
The president-elect is set to be sentenced on Friday, a little over a week before he is sworn in for his second term as president.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked a judge to halt the sentencing in his hush-money case while his lawyers appeal against recent rulings upholding the verdict.
Mr Trump’s lawyers said they plan to ask a state appeals court to reverse Judge Juan M Merchan’s decision last week, which set the case for sentencing on Friday — a little over a week before he is sworn in for his second term.
In a pair of rulings in recent weeks, Mr Merchan rejected Mr Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict and dismiss the indictment on presidential immunity grounds and because of his impending return to the White House.
In a decision last week, the judge signalled he is not likely to sentence Mr Trump, a Republican, to any punishment for his historic conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Acknowledging the demands of the transition process, he had given Mr Trump the option to attend in person or appear by video.
Mr Trump’s lawyers argued in court papers on Monday that their planned appeal to the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court triggers what is known as an automatic stay, or pause, in the proceedings.
If that doesn’t happen, they argued, Mr Merchan should then grant a pause and prevent sentencing from happening on Friday as scheduled.
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Witch Hunt,” Mr Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on immunity, the state constitution of New York and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, has been asked for comment.
While Mr Trump asserted that presidential immunity and his looming second term necessitated nixing the verdict, Mr Merchan wrote in his ruling on January 3 that only “bringing finality to this matter” by sentencing Mr Trump would serve the interests of justice.
The judge wrote that sentencing Mr Trump to what is known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution”.
Mr Trump will have an opportunity to speak at his sentencing, as will his lawyers and prosecutors.
Once he is sentenced, he can appeal against the verdict, as he has vowed to do.
Mr Trump is on course to be the first president to take office convicted of felony crimes.
In a social media post, he said it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if the judge’s ruling upholding the May 30 verdict is allowed to stand.
The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicising claims she’d had sex with him years earlier.
He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.
The case centred on how Mr Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Ms Daniels.
The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.
Mr Cohen, a key prosecution witness who had previously called for Mr Trump to be put in prison, said that “based upon all of the intervening circumstances” Mr Merchan’s decision to sentence Mr Trump without punishment “is both judicious and appropriate”.
Mr Trump’s sentencing was initially set for July 11 2024, then postponed twice at the defence’s request.
After Mr Trump’s election victory, Mr Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defence and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.
